Texas Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 30 Years for 31-Hour Bus Trip to Ohio to Exploit 15-Year-Old He Met Online
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced on November 5, 2026, that Harrison Michael Barton, 39, of North Detroit, Texas, was sentenced in federal court to 360 months (30 years) in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor and attempted kidnapping of a minor. Barton is a registered sex offender who had previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison for online solicitation of a minor.
According to court documents, in February 2025 Barton took a 31-hour Greyhound bus trip from Florida to Coshocton County, Ohio, to sexually exploit a 15-year-old girl he had met about a month earlier while playing the online game Call of Duty. Barton admitted that the teenager picked him up in Newcomerstown, Ohio, and that before arriving at the airport he engaged in sexual conduct with the minor and took sexually explicit pictures of the victim.
Barton was arrested at John Glenn Columbus International Airport while attempting to fly to Florida with the victim. At the time, he was wanted on an outstanding parole warrant out of Texas stemming from his prior conviction. He pleaded guilty in February 2026, and the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.
U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said Barton was a registered sex offender who traveled the country to commit crimes against a minor he met online, and that his office will prosecute those who prey on children to the fullest extent of the law and seek multi-decade sentences. The case was investigated and announced with the FBI Cincinnati Division, the Coshocton County Sheriff's Office, the Newark Police Department and the airport police, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and Jennifer M. Rausch as part of Project Safe Childhood. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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